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The Canadian Congenital Anomalies Surveillance Network was established in 2002 to address gaps in the national surveillance of congenital anomalies (CAs) and support the sustainability of high-quality, population-based, CA surveillance systems within provinces and territories. This paper highlights the methodologies of each local CA surveillance system, noting similarities and variabilities between each system, to contribute to enhanced national CA surveillance efforts., Competing Interests: This manuscript was supported by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC; to YN); by BORN Ontario (to QM); and by the BC Ministry of Health (to YN). PHAC provides funding to LR and MJ to attend meetings and travel. LR is supported by electronic equipment and office space provided by Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services and by salary funding provided to Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services from PHAC, in-kind with Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services. MJ received a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in 2020 for an unrelated research project. CC is supported by contract funding provided to the IWK Health Centre from PHAC for work related to Nova Scotia and in-kind contributions to represent Health PEI. CN is a contract lecturer at Lakehead University and Carleton University.

Nowadays, urban rivers play an important role in city development and make great contributions to urban ecology. Most urban rivers are the drinking water sources and water quality is extremely critical. The current assessment method in national standard of China has multiple limitations; therefore, this paper introduces an advanced assessment, that is, Canadian Water Quality Index (CWQI). This method can help to provide comprehensive and objective water quality assessment for the urban rivers. Moreover, CWQI can prevent waste of the water resource, since current assessment is pessimistic and tent to underestimate water samples to a lower grade. Linyi development area is selected as study region and CWQI method is applied to assess two major urban rivers within the area. The water monitoring data from 2014 to 2017 is acquired in 24 parameters. Since the CWQI calculation is still based on traditional water quality measurement in parameters, there will be a huge cost when increasing research scale and accuracy. In this paper, remote sensing technique is employed to develop models of CWQI scores from satellite data. By utilizing 23 selected monitoring instances and matching satellite data, linear regression analysis shows that red band data has highest correlation with CWQI in both two urban rivers in the study region. In addition, two testing datasets with five instances for each river are used to validate the RS-based CWQI models and the results show that testing datasets can be fitted well. With the models, CWQI distribution diagrams are generated and assist both spatial and temporal analysis. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can indicate actual water quality pattern which is validated by field visit. The proposed approach in this paper has satisfying effectiveness and robustness.

Purpose: Since 2012, BORN Ontario, a maternal-newborn registry, has collected data on every birth in Ontario. To ensure data quality, we assessed the reliability of key elements collected in BORN by comparing these with like data elements in the Canadian Institute for Health Information-Discharge Abstract Database (CIHI-DAD)., Methods: We used provincial health card numbers to deterministically link live or stillbirth records and their corresponding mothers' records in the BORN database to the CIHI-DAD in the fiscal years 2012-2013 to 2014-2015. Percentage agreement and Cohen Kappa statistics were used to assess agreement on main elements in both databases., Results: The percentage agreement and Kappa coefficients were 99.98% and 0.740 (95% CI: 0.677-0.803) on live/stillbirth, respectively. The Kappa coefficients for infant sex, gestational age at birth, induction of labour, and caesarean birth were 0.989 (95% CI: 0.988-0.989), 0.920 (95% CI: 0.919-0.920), 0.782 (95% CI: 0.780-0.785), and 0.995 (95% CI: 0.995-0.996), respectively. Kappa agreement for the number of fetuses in a pregnancy was 0.979 (95% CI: 0.977-0.981). Percentage agreement was very high for infants' birthdates (99.9%), infant postal codes (91.8%), infants' birth weight in grams (95.5%), and mothers' dates of birth (99.1%)., Conclusions: Overall, the BORN and CIHI-DAD databases had concordance on key birth and maternal data elements; however, additional work is needed to understand discrepancies identified.

The objective of this study was to review environmental equity research on outdoor air pollution and, specifically, methods and tools used in research, published in English, with the aim of recommending the best methods and analytic tools. English language publications from 2000 to 2012 were identified in Google Scholar, Ovid MEDLINE, and PubMed. Research methodologies and results were reviewed and potential deficiencies and knowledge gaps identified. The publications show that exposure to outdoor air pollution differs by social factors, but findings are inconsistent in Canada. In terms of study designs, most were small and ecological and therefore prone to the ecological fallacy. Newer tools such as geographic information systems, modeling, and biomarkers offer improved precision in exposure measurement. Higher-quality research using large, individual-based samples and more precise analytic tools are needed to provide better evidence for policy-making to reduce environmental inequities.